THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY July 22, 2003 strong password
________________ SPONSORED BY: AMD 64-bit computing software If you need more performance or are developing new applications, you may want to consider migrating from 32-bits to 64-bits. Wondering how much work is involved and which enterprise apps will most benefit? Find out here. http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,16211,00.htm?amd ________________ TODAY'S WORD: strong password See our complete definition with hyperlinks at http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci914537,00.html Strong password is one that is designed to be hard for a person or program to discover. Because the purpose of a password is to ensure that only authorized users can access resources, a password that is easy to guess is a security risk. Essential components of a strong password include sufficient length and a mix of character types. When people create passwords, they often defeat the purpose by choosing parts of their names, the names of their pets, or even the word "password." A typical weak password is short and consists solely of letters in a single case. You can make your password much harder to break by using more characters, mixing upper and lower case letters, and including numbers and special characters. According to a security guide from Texas A&M University's Research Foundation, a six-character, single-case password has 308 million possible combinations, all of which a password cracker can go through in just a few minutes. Combining upper and lower case letters and using eight characters instead of six increases the possible combinations to 53 trillion; substituting a number for one of the letters yields 218 trillion possibilites; and substituting a special character or punctuation for another yields 6,095 trillion possible combinations. Although a password cracker can eventually go through that many combinations, it requires much more time and computing power. People like to use passwords that will be easy for them to remember. A Microsoft article about security suggests that you use a memorable phrase instead of a word, and convert that phrase to a password. For example, the phrase, "I have 2 Labrador retrievers! Fido and Spot." could be expressed as Ih2Lr!F+S. To make the password even more cryptic, you can use the last letters of words instead of the first, and reverse the case: iE2rS!o+t. ______________________ SELECTED LINKS: SearchNetworking features an article called "Business security begins with a strong password policy." http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid7_gci862091,00.html Microsoft provides a security checklist: Create Strong Passwords. http://www.microsoft.com/security/articles/password.asp Texas A&M University Research Foundation's security guide provides a tutorial on Weak Passwords. http://rf-web.tamu.edu/security/SECGUIDE/V1comput/Password.htm ______________________ RELATED TERMS: password cracker http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci536994,00.html ______________________ TODAY'S TECH NEWS: ORACLE, MAGNAWARE LEND RECRUITERS A HAND Oracle Corp. and MagnaWare Software are joining forces to help hiring managers process the piles of resumes that cross their desks and flood their in-boxes. http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid41_gci915481,00.html EXPLOIT CODE LURKS FOR CISCO FLAW The Cisco IOS flaw became more dangerous over the weekend as the code to exploit it was posted on public mailing lists. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci915495,00.html HP RELEASES WEB SERVICES MANAGEMENT SPEC Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday released a proposed Web services standard it says will help companies manage such services -- and the platforms on which they run. http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid26_gci915457,00.html >> Catch up on all the latest IT news at http://searchtechtarget.techtarget.com/ ______________________ Secret Word-of-the-Day | What is it? This is a list of IP addresses known to be sources of spam. >> Click for correct answer http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci840315,00.html _____________________ Quiz #5 | General IT terms Do you know how the Internet works? Take this week's quiz and find out! >> Click to take the quiz http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci553879,00.html ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] Direct-to-Edit http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci915303,00.html [2] assistive technology http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci914775,00.html [3] FireWire http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci212126,00.html [4] cache cramming http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci914394,00.html [5] Government Information Awareness http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci914344,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Associate Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ::::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER :::::::::::::::::::::: This newsletter is published by TechTarget, the most targeted IT media. http://www.techtarget.com Copyright 2003 TechTarget. 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